We kicked off September by biking the Greenbelt up to Barber Park, where we rented a raft for our annual Boise River Float.
School started (boo) and I never got to see the older four and spent far too much time with the preschooler. Good thing he’s kinda cute.
Tim celebrated his 41st birthday in style.
Can you guess which kid was responsible for Jack’s tears?
Rachel started up basketball, we took the younger two to the pumpkin patch, threw a Halloween party for Eve and her friends, and went trick-or-treating against our better judgment.
April kicked off with a bang when Jack for his first infusion of zolendronic acid. This medication differs from the one Jack has been receiving since he was three months old in that each infusion lasts only about 1 hour from start to finish.
Compared with the three-day four-hour infusions that have become normal for us, this was a piece of cake. Not to mention, he only receives them twice a year (as opposed to the 3 times a year schedule of pamidronate he was on). Yay for Jack (and his very busy mother, too)!
Next up was my birthday-a chocolate affair, naturally. Not pictured: Tim (taking the picture), Anna (who, as I remember, napped through the whole celebration). My gift was season tickets to our local Shakespeare Festival-a summer favorite for me.
My loved ones provided a pizza dinner and I somehow got away with a nap. What more could a girl ask for?
Next up was Anna’s birthday party. We couldn’t very we’ll schedule it during spring break when many friends were out of town. So the day after my birthday, we carted all these awesome kids off for an escape room adventure, then back to our house for food and games.
I enjoyed seeing that Anna’s friend groups are varied-that she is anything BUT clique-ish. I also loved to watch these kids, who knew each other but didn’t really know each other get along so fabulously.
They ate us out of house and home and made a ton of noise downstairs. Thank heaven for that bonus room we added last year so we weren’t relegated to our bedrooms during the party.
I signed Tim up to chaperone Lily’s choir trip. He had the day off (it was Good Friday) and he had nothing better to do (ha!) so Lily had the pleasure of having her dad take her phone away at bedtime at the hotel. But she also had her dad there to buy her meals and the cold medicine she so desperately needed to survive the trip.
When she got back we took her to the doctor and she was diagnosed with a double ear infection. Yikes.
While they were gone we dyed Easter eggs. We probably did some other stuff, but since I neither have pictures to document it nor the memory to recall any details from over a month ago, this will do.
Our Easter egg hunt this year bucked tradition by happening inside the house. Owing to the fact that our yard was destroyed by our remodel and our patio and landscaping currently non-existent, we figured the interior of our abode a more hospitable location.
As usual, we hid their baskets in plain sight (meaning not behind closed doors) and we still managed to stump Lily. She clocked in at about 10 minutes of searching before finding hers.
The eggs were not quite so elusive. They were everywhere-so that even Jack could feel success in his efforts. It never ceases to amaze me how a simple Easter egg hunt never gets old for kids. Like ever.
Jack started swimming lessons, I taught Joy School once or twice, and Rachel won second place in the soccer ball throw (discus) in the Elementary City Track Meet.
Not an all-inclusive list-but that pretty much sums up our April.
It’s an even year birthday so Lily got a party with friends…a trip across town to the roller rink. Ever concerned about budget, she picked that location because we could use the B1G1 coupons we scored when we went there for Rachel’s birthday party.
Lily is, in many ways a delight to raise. Always looking the bright side, very sweet to her younger brother, easy to talk to, pretty much unruffled by what would cause most teenagers a whole lot of drama. We just love her.
In fact, after opening her presents, she promptly declared that we had scored big time. As she put it, she “got everything she wanted”. A couple of pairs of shoes and some name brand athleisure pants did the trick, apparently.
She requested my tried and true peanut butter chocolate cheesecake-requiring two days of prep/assembly. Gosh I hope the trend dies down soon so I can stop borrowing my neighbor’s springform pan and get back to making cakes in less than a day…
Anna’s birthday falls on spring break almost every single year. This occasionally poses a problem when trying to schedule a birthday party, or when your friends want to decorate your locker, or give you an embarrassing tiara to wear at school all day long. So a month ago in family council we asked Anna what she would prefer: Skip a half day of school to drive to Portland on her birthday? Or go to school and leave the next day to drive all the way to the coast? (We’d booked a campsite for the following night). She opted for Portland. She apparently got the “introvert” genes in the family. Or the “avoid embarrassment at all costs” genes.
Either way, we had to space our birthday traditions over several days to accommodate our plans. Early Friday morning, we ate her birthday breakfast, sang “happy birthday”, ate a Costco cake (clearly not the “real, homemade” cake that was still to come), opened presents and went around the table telling what we love about her. We then headed out the door to Oregon.
The following Friday night, we took her out to eat for her birthday dinner. Then, finally, on Sunday, we indulged in her chosen birthday cake – a brownie chocolate chip cookie dough cheesecake. Thank heaven Pinterest did not fail me on this one. Delish.
As a bonus, her young women leaders invaded her room the day before her birthday to decorate it with streamers, balloons and chocolate. Lots of it. Boy, this girl is LOVED.
As a parent, I knew I would love the baby/toddler/preschool years. And I have. Little ones are so easy to love. What I didn’t anticipate is how fun having teenagers can be. Anna is a gem. She’s steady, diligent, and has a solid knowledge of who she is gained through faithful study of the word of God. In a world where many teens couldn’t care less about what really matters, Anna has got her head on straight. She is a joy to raise and I look forward to seeing where her desire to seek out the good will take her. Happy Birthday to my beautiful firstborn!
Here’s one of many examples of how presentation rests rather low on my list of priorities:
I couldn’t care less about wrapping paper. I can appreciate a well-wrapped present, when someone else does it. But when it comes to wrapping my own, I’d just as soon use up a few old scraps to avoid the waste. My practical side wins out just about every time. On the other hand, I let Jack assist me in this particular package, resulting in several errant pieces of Scotch tape. So much for avoiding waste.
Lily didn’t seem to mind, as she tore open present after present in celebration of her thirteenth birthday. Another teenager in the house…I’m still bracing for impact.
She spent a rather ordinary day at school, went home with a friend to watch her very first PG-13 movie (yep, we hold the line at our house right up until they turn the ripe old age of 13), and we joined together in the evening for cake and ice cream and presents. Where I lack in gift-wrapping I more than make up for in dessert-making. This particular beauty has become the dessert du jour at our house.
It’s been requested three times in the last year, making it our most popular model of birthday cake to date. Pretty labor-intensive too. Nothing says I love you like a five-layer chocolate peanut butter cheesecake, two days in the making. (The irony of it all is that I’m currently on a refined sugar hiatus so I didn’t eat so much as a smidgen of the delicacy.)
Thirteen is a big year in our house, yielding some major benefits including a new email address, access to one social media platform, a new checking account and permission to view PG-13 movies (Lily’s personal favorite). Hopefully Lily will assume her new “responsibilities” with wisdom and prudence. We shall see.
Lily is an easy one to celebrate. She never fails to express gratitude for even the small things so gift-giving is an absolute joy. For each birthday, we all take turns telling the birthday girl (or boy) one of our favorite things about her/him. I told Lily that I adore how she find the silver lining in everything. For instance, I couldn’t get up to make her birthday breakfast this morning.
Literally, I couldn’t get up. I developed a crazy crick in the neck the night before and it pretty much disabled me for almost 24 hours. Tim was tactful enough to suggest that it was age-related. Humph.
Anyway, my point is, Lily relegated herself to pouring a bowl of cereal without complaint. She rarely gets ruffled when plans change and is quick to find something with which to console herself. This morning it was Lucky Charms, no doubt.
I love that resilience and I hope it carries her through her teenage years. And well beyond. Happy Birthday Lily!
For odd birthdays in our family, the birthday girl (or boy, as the case may be) chooses a favorite restaurant for dinner. Eve was adventurous this year (not to mention a little spendy) and invited us all out to a Japanese steakhouse.
It was our most expensive meal to-date. (Then again, we don’t go out to eat much).
All the kids considered it a huge treat-even Jack was engaged, yelling “Fire! Fire!” every time he saw a grill light up. Even our “picky” eater appreciated the experience and ventured outside her comfort zone to try fried rice and catch grilled shrimp in her mouth. It almost made me consider investing in a hibachi simply to get her to eat her vegetables.
Eve herself was delighted by the whole thing. Then we headed back home for cake, ice cream and presents. She’s our non-chocolate lover, so I’m sure she was thrilled to indulge in rainbow chip cake with sprinkles on top and birthday cake ice cream. All of her presents were a hit, which is actually somewhat surprising since she kept amending her wish list right up until the day before her birthday, and long after all the presents had been ordered, shipped and wrapped.
As per our tradition, we each took a turn sharing one thing we love about Eve. It was not difficult to come up with honest compliments for this sweet girl of ours. She’s bright, generous, a ball of energy, an expert harmonizer, a loving snuggler, an incessant talker, a creative genius and so much more.
What a difference she makes in our family. Happy ninth birthday to my baby girl!
Jack’s birthday coincided with the Christmas decor going up. We were careful to avoid placing any glass ornaments on the lower half of the tree. We were not so careful to avoid setting an enormous present, begging Jack to climb on it, under the tree.
Naturally, he climbed it, grabbed the first glass ball he could reach and chucked it onto the hardwood. To his delight, it shattered into a thousand pieces. So he did it again. And then he started tearing open the present upon which he had stood moments before.
Not five minutes later he found a few more interesting looking “balls” (pinecones) forming a centerpiece on our table and did what any little boy would have done: threw them one-by-one as far as his little guns could throw them.
It was adorable. What is it about the youngest child that transforms a mother into a see-no-evil, hear-no-evil creature? I laugh just about everything off when it comes to him because I know he will outgrow this phase with all it’s obnoxiousness.
I know one day I’ll sit in a rocker in my spotless home wondering how the chaos of raising children had managed to slip through my fingers. I’ll miss it, no doubt. The kids, not the mess, obviously.
Childhood is so fleeting. So I’ll gladly sweep up shattered ornaments and rewrap giant presents for a few more years of this face.
